Dancing: Natural or Learned?
As I’ve said already, I heart Robson Square!!! It’s so great to see hundreds of people gather every Friday night for the greatest purpose that life has to offer: DANCE!!!!
Okay, so dancing isn’t everyone’s calling… But it must be somewhat of a natural thing for humans to do, as you see it in all cultures and all different countries around the world. Even all ages!
I’ve been to every Robson Square so far this summer, and I’ve taken my baby girl a handful of times. With no formal training (as she’s only 1 year old), even she bobs up and down with the music, sways from side to side and swings her body back and forth. In fact, it was very early on, when she was just a few months old, that I noticed her bobbing up and down with the music.
This past Friday, Samantha met a little girl who was visiting from Mexico. They had fun dancing to the Zumba music playing. It was very cute! The little girl had the cutest dancing skirt (which btw, I need to find for Samantha), and somehow she just knew instinctively to shake her hips and make it move!
Watching my baby girl grow up makes me certain that dancing is a very natural thing inherent in all human beings. Albeit, at the moment, it is just simple movement to music. However, in the future, when we want Samantha to explore more formalized dance steps, whether it be ballroom, ballet, jazz, or Chinese dance, then of course, she will need to go through the learning stages. She will need to acquire the knowledge and experience of how to master the timings and movements in whatever form of dance she chooses.
In order to really master any form of dance, the sequence of understanding has to be there. As my Danish teacher, Hans Laxholm, always says… You must go ‘from knowing nothing – to knowing everything – to knowing nothing’. What he means is that at some point, we need to go back to that original, free-flowing, instinctive, natural state of movement that we once had way back when, before we ever had any formalized dance training. We need to capture that true essence of dance and not lose sight of it.
If you need a reminder as to how natural dancing can be, just come down to Robson Square this Friday and watch Samantha bounce with the music! She will surely remind you of what it’s like to dance ‘knowing nothing’.
This Friday is JC Dance Co’s night at Robson Square, so don’t miss out!
